With the growing need for 4K data transmission, satellite operators are moving towards channel bonding techniques. The channel bonding techniques (such as those defined by Digital Video Broadcasting-Second Generation Extension (DVB-S2X)) allows head-end to split a high-bandwidth stream into multiple low bit rate transponders. The receivers then collect data from these multiple transponders/channels and re-assemble them and generate the high-bandwidth stream. The re-assembled high bandwidth stream is then filtered by program identifiers (PIDs) for extracting the program data.
In many implementations, only one program can be extracted from the set of tuners available on that box. This is due to channel bonding being used because of bandwidth limitations of the transponders sending the signals. Channel bonding allows for the spare capacity of the transponders to get used but results in one channel being split among multiple transponders which requires multiple tuners to receive the split data. Many homes have multiple set top boxes which are connected to each other. These boxes may have their own tuners.
The details of various embodiments of the methods and systems are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below.